due form, and made my best bow. I learned afterward that I had really been
treated with exceptional consideration, and might esteem myself fortunate
in not being condemned without trial and strangled without notice.




CHAPTER X.

SALVADOR.


Now that I knew beyond a doubt what would be my fate unless I could escape
before morning, I became decidedly anxious as to the outcome of my
approaching interview with the ghostly comforter for whom I had asked. It
was my last chance. If it failed me, or the man turned out to be a priest
and nothing more, my hours were numbered. The time was too short to
arrange any other plan. Would he bring with him a file and a cord? Even if
he did, we could hardly hope to cut through the bars before daylight. And,
most important consideration of all, how would Carera contrive to send me
the right man?

The mystery was solved more quickly than I expected.

After leaving the tribunal, my escort took me back by the way we had come,
the police captain, who was showing himself much more friendly (probably
because he looked on me as a good "Christian" and a dying man), walking
beside instead of behind me; and when we were within a hundred yards or so
of the _carcel_ I observed a Franciscan friar pacing slowly toward us.